According to experts interviewed by the Orlando Sentinel, the prosecution and defense will be looking for very different kinds of people to sit on the jury that will hear the evidence against George Zimmerman:

"Defense attorneys will likely favor people age 40 and older, predicted Orlando jury consultant Susan Constantine. They'll also want managers, authority figures, people who are analytic — engineers, for example — those who are unemotional and will focus on the facts.

"Expect prosecutors to favor people ages 18 to 35, those with lower-paying jobs — for example, social workers, construction workers or people in service industries — and, in general, those who rely more on emotion in making decisions, Constantine said. Defense attorneys will favor whites, prosecutors blacks, she said."

On Morning Edition, NPR's Greg Allen recapped the story and previewed the trial. Trayvon's death, and the way local prosecutors initially handled the case, sparked protests in several cities across the nation and reignited the national discussion about race relations.

Zimmerman has said he acted in self defense. But Trayvon's family and its supporters say Zimmerman racially profiled the 17-year-old, who had been walking through a Sanford neighborhood. Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer, had called police to report a "suspicious" looking person was in the area. The two then had a violent encounter.

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The killing of Trayvon Martin , an unarmed 17 year-old African-American, by self-described neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, has sparked a national discussion about racial profiling and vigilante justice. It has also prompted a more critical look at so-called “stand your ground” laws in Florida, the state where the incident took place, and across the nation, including Texas. Police in the Orlando suburb of Sanford have yet to arrest Zimmerman, as Florida law permits the use of deadly force in self-defense. (Despite reports that he was the party to instigate the confrontation , Zimmerman says he did act in self-defense.)

Close to three hundred protesters donned hoodies and gathered at the gates of the State Capitol Tuesday night in remembrance of slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. It was a silent protest. It’s one in a series of rallies across the country this week that expressed anger over Martin’s killing by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Austin attorney James Nortey helped organize the event. He says the group spread the word about the protest almost exclusively through social media and word-of-mouth....

The fallout from The Daily Texan ’s publication of a controversial editorial cartoon is carrying on, this time in a different direction. A UT student has launched an online petition to reinstate Stephanie Eisner, the Texan editorial cartoonist whose cartoon, she said, attacked what she saw as biased coverage of the Trayvon Martin shooting. A 17-year old African-American, Martin was shot by George Zimmerman in a gated Florida community last month. Zimmerman claimed the shooting was in self-defense; Martin was unarmed. A wave of demonstrations, with protesters clad in hooded sweatshirts like Martin wore, have occurred across the county, including Austin .